26 
Tuesday, June 5th.—Camp No. 26, Tempe Downs Station; 
har. 28°26in., ther. 49°; height 1,791it. Mr. Watt, who attempted 
to cross the ranges from the camp tu Tempe Downs Station yester- 
day, was unable to do so and was out by himself all night: he 
returned safely early this morning. Assisted by Mr. Belt, I 
examined and 1e-sorted the stores just arrived, and arranged to 
have them taken back to Petermann Gap. I also paid off Tommy 
the black boy, who has not been of much assistance, and engaged 
a local native called Arabi Bey. Professor Spencer meanwhile 
photographed several groups of natives in their corrobboree costume. 
At noon, accompanied by Mr. Thornton, we all started for Peter- 
mann Gap, arriving there at 3 p.m. The pack camels and men 
from the Petermann Depot arrived at 4°30 p.m. Previous to this 
Mr. Thornton had selected and yarded for us a fine fat bullock 
from his herd. In the evening we killed and cut up the beast, 
which will serve us as our meat supply for the next three weeks. 
Mr. Thornton generously refused all consideration for this muni- 
ficent present, thus adding to our obligations to him. I must 
also mention that I received a letter from Mr. C. E. Cowle advising 
me of his arrival at the depot with nine horses and a black boy. 
Wednesday, June 6th.—-Camp No. 27, Petermann Gap; bar. 
28 30in., ther. 27°. Mr. Thornton still further increased my 
indebtedness to him by providing horses for Professor Tate and 
Dr. Stirling, and by undertaking to accompany the professors to 
the Palmer river, north of Illara Waterhole, for the purpose of 
pointing out the locality in which a species of grass tree grows. 
Wishing our late kind host farewell, 1 directed the men with the 
pack camels to return in charge of Mr. Belt to the Depot Camp. 
Then, with the view of making the utmost use of the little time at 
my command, I continued mapping the country in detail in a 
south-easterly direction. Starting from Petermann Gap, on a 
bearing of 120°, across well-grassed salt and cotton bush country, 
at one and a half miles I passed a dry polygonum grass and box 
swamp, due to the overflow,of Petermann Creek. At three miles 
I ascended a rocky rise, with the object of obtaining bearings to 
the surrounding hills. The Petermann Creek has now resolved 
itself into extensive gum flats, which surround this and_ other 
neighboring mounts. Here I noticed for the first time two of 
those rare birds the Princess Alexandra parakeet (Polyteles Alex- 
andre). Continued on a bearing of 123°, passing through flooded 
gum flats for three and a quarter miles to a rocky sandstone ridge 
embedded in high red sandridges. At four and a half miles I found 
myself on the Palmer river. This I followed on the previous 
bearing, and at five miles I arrived at Mr. E. Giles’s ** permanent 
